Book is vii + 426 pp. Wilhelm Karl Grimm's survey of Germanic heroic tales. Its main content of 172  entries is preceded by a brief foreword (v-vi), and is followed by a section of evidence for a poem by Gudrun (325-32), Grimm's outline of the legends' origins and development (333-99), additional notes or addenda (400-2), an index of proper names (403-25), and errata (426).

The Beowulf entry is item 6 in the main sequence. It is included here primarily because it contains a little under 40 lines of the poem translated from Old English into German and presented in parallel, the largest direct translation into German to this date. The prose treatment does not summarize, but discusses the passages Grimm selects and translates in terms of their cross-references to other Germanic literature. Grimm takes his Old English from Thorkelín, with consultation of Grundtvig's and Conybeare's corrections (13-14).

The Old English with German immediately following is in three segments. The first, representing ll. 452-55a of Beowulf, is as follows:

Onsend Higelâce, gif mec hild nime,
beaduscruda best, þæt mîne breost wereþ,
hrægla selest; þæt is hrædlan lâf,
Wêlandes geweorc. (14; italics as in original)

The German translation is as follows:

Sende dem Higelak, wenn ich im Kampfe falle,
der Streitgewänder bestes, das meine Brust bekleidet,
der Rüstungen herrlichste; es ist des tapfern Nachlaß,
Wielandes Arbeit. (14)

The second and longest segment, representing ll. 867b-900 of Beowulf, begins:

— — — hwîlum cyninges þegn,
guma gilphlæden, gidda gemyndig,
se þe eal fela ealdgesegena
worn gemunde, word oþer fand
soþe gebunden. (14)

And ends:

se wæs wreccena wîde mærost
ofer werþeode, wigendra hleo.
ellendædum he þæs ær onþâh (15; lack of final punctuation sic)

Its translation into German begins:

— — — Vordem des Königs Mann,
Held ruhmbeladen, der Lieder eingedenk,
er der alter Sagen große Menge
im Gedächtniß bewahrte, auf anderes gerieth
Wahrheit enthaltend. (15)

And ends:

Er war der Recken weit berühmtester
unter den Menschenkindern, der kämpfenden Zuflucht.
Durch tapfere Thaten früh er sich das (den Ruhm) erwarb. (15)

The third segment, representing ll. 1197-201a of Beowulf, is as follows:

nænigne ic under swegle selran hyrde
hord maþmum (l. mâþum) hæleþa, siþþan Hâma ætwæg
tô herebyrhtan byrig Brosinga mene,
sigle and sinc fæt, searo nîþas (l. searo nîþe)
fealh (l. feoh eal) Eormenrîces. (17; italics as in original)

Its German translation is as follows:

Von keinem bessern unter em Himmel ich hörte
Horte der Helden, seit Heima forttrug
zu der heerglänzenden Burg der Brosinge Schatz,
Geschmeid und köstliches Gefäß, hinterlistig
alles Gut Ermanrichs. (17)

MO2's annotation, "with summary," is not accurate.

BAM.